Hi all!
As it’s the beginning of the new year, I thought it would be a good idea to share the 2023 releases I’m most excited for.
As always, I share a list of anticipated sequels, first in a new series, and standalones. Let’s get into it!
Sequels
Prince & Pawn (Perilous Courts #3) by Tavia Lark (Jan 30)
As the illegitimate son of a cruel, powerful family, Corin’s expected to accompany his legitimate half-brother to the palace. He sneaks away for one last night of freedom—and falls into bed with a mysterious man who ruins him for anyone else. Corin only regrets he’ll never see the man again…
Until the next morning, when Corin meets his brother’s new arranged fiancé.
Prince Audric doesn’t want this political marriage, but he’ll do anything for his kingdom. His last night of freedom is a rare indulgence—that he never expected to haunt him like this. Forgetting Corin would be impossible even if Corin wasn’t moving to the palace in his brother’s entourage.
Audric resolves to avoid Corin for both their sakes, but that isn’t easy when Corin might be key to unraveling a deadly conspiracy—and when he keeps fainting in Audric’s arms.
A Day of Fallen Night (The Roots of Chaos #2) by Samantha Shannon (Feb 28)
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Den of Thieves (Monster Hunt #2) by Charlie Adhara (Apr 25)
Julien Doran is back home in California, reeling from the discovery that not only do werewolves exist, but also that Eli Smith, the elusive man he can’t get off his mind, is one. Neither man knows what comes next for them, but when Eli gets caught in a web of deadly thefts, Julien isn’t going to let him face the danger alone.
It was only a matter of time before Eli’s past as a rebel wolf caught up with him, but he hardly imagined it would lead him to an Old Hollywood theater. Stumbling on a dead body while paying off one last debt wasn’t part of the plan, but if he’s going to have any chance of a future—with or without Julien—he needs to track down the killer.
Together, the two dive into the world of horror movies, mediums, and monster hunters to find out exactly what secrets someone is willing to kill for. But when the line between on-screen and off begins to blur, Julien and Eli don’t have the luxury of dancing around each other anymore. Not if they want to avoid being the next victims.
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First in a series
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books #1) by KJ Charles (Mar 7)
Abandoned by his father as a small child, Sir Gareth Inglis has grown up prickly, cold, and well-used to disappointment. Even so, he longs for a connection, falling headfirst into a passionate anonymous affair that’s over almost as quickly as it began. Bitter at the sudden rejection, Gareth has little time to lick his wounds: his father has died, leaving him the family title, a rambling manor on the remote Romney Marsh…and the den of cutthroats and thieves that make its intricate waterways their home.
Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. His family is his life…which is why when the all-too-familiar new baronet testifies against Joss’s sister for a hanging offense, Joss acts fast, blackmailing Gareth with the secret of their relationship to force him to recant. Their reunion is anything but happy and the path forward everything but smooth, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. It’s a long road from there—full of danger and mysteries to be solved—yet somehow, along the way, this well-mannered gentleman may at last find true love with the least likely of scoundrels.
The Archive Undying (The Downward Sequence #1) by Emma Mieko Candon (Jun 27)
When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to life: its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he’s seen. He’s run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.
The Principle of Moment (Order of Legends #1) by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson (Jul 6)
Asha Akindele has lived her whole life on Gahraan, just like the rest of humanity, eking out an existence between factory assembly lines and constant terror. Then she discovers she has a sister imprisoned by Emperor Thracin, and is forced to make a choice: remain a slave, or escape and risk everything in the name of family.
With the help of hopeless time-traveller, Obi, who just wants to return home to London, 1812, and his almost-boyfriend, George IV, Asha must travel through the stars in an attempt to save a sister she’s never met, yet vowed to rescue – and in doing so save worlds.
Standalones
Spare by Prince Harry (Jan 10)
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow – and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling – and how their lives would play out from that point on.
For Harry, this is that story at last.
With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
The King’s Delight by Sarah Honey (Jan 14)
King Leopold of Lilleforth rules his kingdom well. He’s handsome, intelligent, and charming. It’s no wonder the neighbouring kingdoms are eager to provide him with a princess to marry. There’s just one problem—Leo has no interest in princesses. His tastes tend more towards handsome young men who enjoy a good spanking.
Felix Hobson left the kingdom of Lilleforth as a teenager to train as a groom. While he was away he learned a lot, and not all of it had to do with horses—although riding crops were definitely involved. Now an adult, Felix is home to take up the position of royal groom, where he hopes he’ll have plenty of opportunities for a roll in the hay.
When Felix mistakes Leopold for a horse thief and attempts to seduce him, Leopold is delighted by the irreverent, attractive lad, and sparks fly. Their arrangement is all fun and games, right until they both fall hard and fast. But while what they have together is a delight, there’s no way it can last—can it?
They’ll have to navigate a visiting princess, an assassination attempt, and a
kidnapping if they want a chance to find out.
Beautiful Undone by Melissa Polk (Jan 19)
It’s been nearly ten years since Quade last heard from Victor, his childhood friend and eventual lover. Resigned to a life of work and drudgery, the last thing Quade could have anticipated was an ominous summons from Victor to attend him at his home, Suriyel. With little thought to the consequences of his actions, Quade makes immediate plans to leave the city. After all, no matter the time or distance between them, Quade could never deny Victor anything.
Victor, a powerful and reclusive mage, is now the Lord of Suriyel. With all the years he’s spent hiding from the world, he’s no longer able to imagine a life outside the boundaries of his lands. His every moment is devoted to untangling the curse wrapped around his sister, compounding her already failing health.
Unbeknownst to the world at large, the tarn at Suriyel acts as a gateway to myriad alternate worlds. That gateway has been breached by Tristan Armoni, a power-hungry duke from another dimension–a duke who happens to be Victor’s mirror image and seeks to control more than just his own world. All that stands between Suriyel and Tristan is Victor’s magic. Without knowing the full extent of Tristan’s goals, Victor is desperate to find a way to save both his world and his sister.
For Tristan, no act is too depraved and no step too far. He will stop at nothing to see his mysterious plans through to the end.
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati (Mar 2)
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offence against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot.
But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.
Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods’ hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.
If power isn’t given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn (Mar 7)
It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.
Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle–an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood–without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt’s family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt’s horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.
Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo (Mar 14)
What does it mean to “be-in-kind” with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack.
Sean’s tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she’s invading.
The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur (Apr 18)
Tansy Adams’ greatest love is her family’s bookstore, passed down from her late father. But when it comes to actual romance… Tansy can’t get past the first chapter. Tired of her stepfamily’s questions about her love life, Tansy invents Gemma, a fake girlfriend inspired by the stunning cover model on a bestselling book. They’ll never actually meet, so what’s the harm in a little fib? Yet when real-life Gemma crosses Tansy’s path, her white lie nearly implodes.
Gemma van Dalen is a wild child, the outcast of her wealthy family, and now the latest heir to Van Dalen Publishing. But the title comes with one tiny condition: she must be married in order to inherit. When Gemma discovers a beautiful stranger has been pretending to date her for months, she decides to take the charade one step further—and announces their engagement.
Gemma needs a wife to meet the terms of her grandfather’s will and Tansy needs money to save her struggling bookstore. A marriage could be mutually beneficial, if they can fool everyone into thinking it’s a love match. Unexpected sparks fly as Tansy and Gemma play the role of affectionate fiancées, and suddenly the line between convenient arrangement and real feelings begins to blur. But the scheming Van Dalen family won’t give up the company without a fight, and Gemma and Tansy’s newfound happiness might get caught in the fallout…
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (May 16)
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid (Sep 1)
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. She’s had no choice. Since childhood, she’s been haunted by visions of the Fairy King. She’s found solace only in the pages of Angharad – author Emrys Myrddin’s beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and then destroys him.
Effy’s tattered, dog-eared copy is all that’s keeping her afloat through her stifling first term at Llyr’s prestigious architecture college. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to design the late author’s house, Effy fells certain this is her destiny.
But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit estate on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, she finds she isn’t the only one who’s made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin’s papers and is determined to prove her favorite author is a fraud.
As the two rival students investigate the reclusive author’s legacy, piecing together clues through his letters, books, and diaries, they discover that the house’s foundation isn’t the only thing that can’t be trusted. There are dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspiring against them – and the truth may bring them both to ruin.
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